Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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135. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on the breakdown of the €261 million identified by his Department in the Ireland's Stability Programme April 2014 Update, as the amount by which net voted expenditure at the end of March was below the estimated profile; if he will clarify any moneys that have been returned to the Exchequer from the Department of Social Protection to date this year. [30240/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Stability Programme Update, published by the Department of Finance in April 2014, showed an amount of €261 million as being the level by which, at the end of March this year, the total net voted expenditure for the year to date was lower than the level of expenditure that had been profiled by Departments;  the variance against profile arose €184 million on current expenditure and €77 million on capital expenditure. By that stage in the year, the net expenditure of the Social Protection Vote was €156m less than had been profiled; this largely arose because PRSI receipts to the Social Insurance Fund were higher than expected and, therefore, the Department only needed to draw down a lower than expected amount from Exchequer sources in order to meet its expenditure needs. The Deputy is asking whether voted monies were returned to the Exchequer from the Department of Social Protection; the question of returning monies did not arise as, in the event, the amount involved was not required from the Exchequer by the Department of Social Protection and, therefore, was not drawn down by that Department from the Exchequer.

The Deputy may wish to be aware that information about the performance of actual expenditure versus profiled levels of spending is published each month as part of the monthly Exchequer Statement that is issued two working days after month end. The end-June data was, for example, published on 2 July. The expenditure data is available on my Department's website and includes a full breakdown of the performance against profile showing each Ministerial Vote Group.